In the run-up to 1997, foreign investors and local residents were both nervous. Half a million people left the colony before the handover, many of whom have since returned armed with foreign passports.
On a corporate level, old institutions such as Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation also moved headquarters, the former to Bermuda and the latter to Britain, where it emerged with a new identity, HSBC.
But, 16 years after it set up shop in London, the institution previously known simply as 'Hongkong Bank' is as involved in this part of the world as ever. It is still by far the biggest issuer of Hong Kong banknotes, and its shares are traded on the local stock exchange, unlike Jardines, which gave up its listing here for Singapore.
A few months ago, when HSBC made a rights issue, the take-up by shareholders in Hong Kong was 98.2 per cent, higher than anywhere else in the world. This was solid proof that in the hearts of many Hongkongers, HSBC remains Hongkong Bank.
With a network of some 220 branches throughout Hong Kong, HSBC accounts for 75 per cent of retail bank accounts here. Not surprisingly, affection for the bank, which was first established in both Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, runs deep and, evidently, is reciprocated.
In 2003, following the Sars outbreak, HSBC launched a scheme, of which HK$4 billion was committed to Hong Kong companies, to keep money flowing to small and medium-sized enterprises at a time when credit was drying up.
Although HSBC has worked to establish itself outside Asia, the results have been decidedly mixed. For example, it has had to write off billions of dollars in bad debts as a result of its involvement in the US sub-prime mortgage market.